I think it makes sense with context of the lesson being education, but without that, not the way it's written currently. Suggestions "I listen to the chapter reading." "I am listening to the chapter reading" Or if they're making a point of saying they can overhear it, "I can hear the chapter being read" or "I can hear the chapter reading."

"I listen to the reading of the chapter" makes sense to me and doesn't sound particularly unnatural, and it doesn't have to be an educational setting. I sometimes listen to readings of chapters of novels while on my elliptical trainer.

We (i.e. I) see lectura and think lecture. WordReference.com doesn't even give lectura as a translation of lecture nor vice-versa. That's a hint to me that the chapter isn't being taught, it's just being read out loud.

Andy & Mike, thank you - I thought I had just remembered incorrectly. "I hear the reading of the chapter" made perfect sense, like it is a book on CD, or a lesson I recorded in class & want to review it.

The English sentence 'I listen to the reading of the chapter' sounds way more natural than 'I hear the reading of the chapter' - or is it just me? In that case, the Spanish verb 'escuchar' (listen) would be more suitable than 'oír' (hear). Any thoughts? Thanks :)

Sometimes I wish Spanish were like other romance languages and didn't have a separate gerund form, so that yo oigo could mean I listen/am listening as well, but perhaps that wouldn't make the learning process as interesting :)

Think of eschuchar as a passive type action.....to hear without any effort.
Oír as more of a active listening where one is paying attention. This similar to ver / mirar (to see / to look). Eschucar and oír are often used interchangeably but this is incorrect.

I've always thought it was the opposite: to listen requires more of a mental effort than to simply hear something. The same with looking vs. seeing; if I am looking and listening, I am paying attention to what I see and hear. Is this really the other way around in Spanish?

In a version of this where I had to produce the spanish from the english, I put 'escucho a' which was marked wrong. Do neither 'oir' nor 'escuchar' take the preposition 'a'. I didn't think they were translated as 'listen to' as they can also mean 'hear'. Any insight?

(1) Lectura is best translated reading not an instructive speech. (2) There is great diversity of Spanish uses possible. But the goal here in Duolingo seems to be to take the English given and come to a most direct, generic Spanish or the Spanish given and arrive at the most direct English. I think, If this were a sentence from a Wikipedia article, how would I best translate it. Talking with a friend from a Latin American country, I might say it differently.

That's what we'd call in English "a lecture on the chapter". 1st and 2nd definitions of the DEL, however, state that "lectura" means "reading of the text".

This set of definitions parallels the English to some extent, extent IMO the order of definitions would be reversed: an English "lecture" is first of all a discourse on written material, and secondly, simply reading from it, although I do believe that this second meaning is archaic today. In the US, we go to a "lecture" to here people expound on ideas, written or not, while we go to "readings" to hear people read from texts, such as a novelist reading a chapter from a book. If I went to a "lecture" by a novelist on his most recent book, I would be very surprised to hear him/her simply read a chapter from that book.

The thing that would resolve this is to learn what Spanish speakers call a "discourse on written material", if "lectura" doesn't cover it. If Spanish "lectura" means English "reading", what does English "lecture" mean in Spanish?

These tricky examples teach a lot the words that are
used as examples which are less common sentences
make us ponder and think about the complexities of
sentence structure and verb conjugation etc.

Idioms and quirks that are not are own native habits are
tricky like anything learning gets harder before it starts
to get easier, knowledge maybe power, but it is always
more complex once we get past the first novice stage
studying and really begin to develop towards expertise...

The struggle is real!... we can do this, thank goodness
for these comments sections, I see the same confusion.